Santa Ana Loses Ruling On Handicap Parking Spaces & Settles Federal Lawsuit



The Center For Disability Access
has helped a handicapped woman win an undisclosed settlement from the City of Santa Ana for designing discriminatory vehicle parking spaces in the downtown area near a series of federal, state and local government buildings. 

Roberta Rogers–who has multiple sclerosis and paralysis in her legs, and must use a scooter for mobility–complained to city officials in May 2011 about deficient parking spaces along North Ross Street between Santa Ana Boulevard and Civic Center Drive. 

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The problem was corrected seven months later, or about a month before Rogers and lawyers for San Diego-based disability access group filed a federal lawsuit alleging violations of the American's With Disabilities Act and the California Disabled Persons Act.
Lawyers for Santa Ana asked U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna to toss out the lawsuit because city employees had corrected the access problem prior to the filing. 
In a November ruling, Selna refused to give the city summary judgment after determining that Rogers was entitled by law to relief because she'd been victimized by the noncompliant parking spaces prior to the corrections, according to court records. 
This month, in the wake of Selna's ruling, the city agreed to settle the case.
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